1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates generally to devices for entertaining and amusing the public, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation to novelty T-shirts depicting a portion of an animate object, such as a human face, and having means associated therewith for giving an appearance of animation to the depiction.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Garments such as T-shirts have in recent years particularly found favor as a means for expressing one's feelings, thoughts, beliefs and personality. A substantial number of these garments have been devoted to entertaining and amusing the public, and as to this number, the prior art discloses several utilizing depictions of a portion of an animate object, such as a human face, and having means associated therewith for giving an appearance of animation to the depiction.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,582,699 to Jelaso et al. discloses a child's skirt having a sounding novelty such as a calf that moos and that has a movable head which can be actuated by means of a pull-cord extending from the head to a tassle at the waist of the wearer. A tug on the pull-cord activates the downward movement of the head while simultaneously activating the mooing mechanism of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,353 to Rayl discloses a body puppet and teaching aid in the form of a T-shirt having indicia depicting a human face. The T-shirt is formed of a resilient material which when stretched causes the indicia to become distorted to illustrate facial expressions. A second embodiment of the T-shirt includes mouth indicia having an elongated slot and a biasing patch affixed to the undersurface of the garment adjacent the slot. The biasing patch is similarly provided with a slot, and an underlying graphic patch is provided for showing teeth and a tongue when the slots in the mouth indicia and biasing patch are opened responsive to the manipulation of the T-shirt material adjacent the mouth.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,082,679 to Connor, while not disclosing such a garment per se, discloses an entertainment device including a badge to be pinned to a lapel or other garment. The badge includes a depiction of a human eye on the front part of a hollow flat box. The device provides for remotely causing the eye to "wink" by manipulation of a rubber bulb or of a string. In the device, the eyelid depiction covers the iris by movement of a plate carrying the eyelid upward relative to the iris, which has been painted or depicted on a stationary portion of the box. This movement is initiated by the user's squeezing a bulb which is in fluid communication with a cylinder carrying the plate or by pulling a string which is connected to the plate and which passes through a hook at the top of the box prior to engaging the plate.
The complexity of the devices disclosed in the Connor and Jelaso et al. patents cited above, however, make such devices relatively impractical from a mass production standpoint. Garments that are made of a light-weight fabric or that are designed to be worn close to a user's body cannot be comfortably used in these devices, moreover, as both devices utilize rigid or semi-rigid moving parts.
The device disclosed in the Rayl patent while relatively simple to manufacture is, nevertheless, useful only for a limited range of fabrics, and lacks a certain realism in producing the desired effect of animation in that a user must manually stretch the fabric adjacent the indicia on the T-shirt. Moreover, repeated stretching of the fabric may in time reduce the resiliency of the garment, so that the effectiveness of the device in replicating life is diminished and the shape of the garment itself possibly distorted.
There is a need, then, for an entertainment device which includes a garment such as a T-shirt which is suitable for mass production in a variety of fabrics, relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and comfortable for a wearer, where the effectiveness of the entertainment device as such or as a garment is not easily or irretrievably lost by use of the device.